It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.